THE BULL IN THE KREMLIN SHOP CHARGES INTO CHECHNYA TO TRY TO MAKE PEACE--AND PILE UP POLITICAL POINTS

Before dawn last Thursday, a dark blue Volvo stopped alongside a World War II memorial in Moscow, and Alexander Lebed, the country's most talked-about politician, stepped out. The retired general was wearing civilian clothes but marched with characteristic ramrod posture into the Church of St. George the Victorious, patron saint of Russian warriors. From there the Secretary of Moscow's Security Council and now special envoy to Chechnya sped to the airport for his second journey last week in search of peace in that war-trampled republic.

Lebed's meditation before St. George's iconostasis may have helped. When he returned to Moscow the next...